If you’ve been following our page for a while, you probably know that we have a little bit of a history of searching for things in William Umstead State Park and not being able to find them. This was not our first attempt to find the chainsaw art tree. However, this time we were finally able to do it thanks to this very helpful article from Carolina Parent Magazine. The directions when laid out like they are in the article are incredibly simple and make it so that anyone can get to the tree with an easy, 15-minute walk. Here are a 2 tips we would like to add to the article:
1. Go on a weekday in the morning if possible. Every weekend we are seeing that Umstead is filled to capacity extremely early. We visited the tree on a Wednesday morning at around 10:00, and were able to have plenty of time to enjoy the tree all by ourselves.
2. Regarding parking in the Sycamore lot and starting the trail: if you visualize the lot like a large square, you enter the parking lot at the bottom right corner of the square, and the entrance to the trail is at the top left corner of the square. The article mentions that there is a trailhead sign, a park maps box, water fountain, and trash/recycle bins at the entrance. There are no longer trash/recycle bins and the water fountain is currently covered with a garbage bag due to COVID-19 concerns, but the sign and park maps bin are still there.
Lastly, we just want to remind everyone to please not climb on the tree. There is a small area carved out as a bench, but other than that, please no climbing. You can already see multiple areas where the tree and art have been damaged from people climbing on it. Let’s all do our part to keep this awesome local treasure preserved for others to see for years to come.
Let us know if you make it to the tree and what your favorite part of the artwork is!
(Note: We're currently working on updating our website with our reviews. This review was originally posted on Instagram and Facebook on June 11, 2020.)